


Crystalline Regrets

by sequence_fairy



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 19:16:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12824262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sequence_fairy/pseuds/sequence_fairy
Summary: As soon as the words left her mouth, she wished she could take them back.





	Crystalline Regrets

**Author's Note:**

> Written originally for the [timepetalsprompts](http://timepetalsprompts.tumblr.com) weekly drabble theme. The theme that week was Ten/Rose angst with 'please forgive me'. I didn't quite get the words in, but they are most definitely implied.

His face is cold stone.

Rose had watched the ice settling over his features while her stomach tied itself in knots. His eyes, usually so expressive, are empty, devoid of any life. His mouth is a grim line, though Rose can see the tic in his jaw from where he clenches it. She knows the mask costs him, and it’s from this small detail that she draws comfort. He swallows and the silence stretches between them.

It’s a silence that echoes with the words she’s just said; their syllables beating against the corners of the room and Rose wishes, more than anything, that she could take it back. He holds himself so stiffly she’s afraid he might shatter if she touches him, like brittle ice on a pond in the winter.

“If that’s how it is,” he says, and Rose winces at his voice, “then I’ll drop you home in the morning.”

Something inside her breaks at his mention of home - because home has been the TARDIS since she’s been aboard and to hear him declare it no longer her place makes everything more real. Words bubble up before she can stop them; “Doctor, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean —”

“Enough Rose,” he says with such finality that Rose chokes on anything else she might have said. In the back of her mind, the TARDIS is pulsing regretfully and Rose blinks back tears. “Just go.”

Tears well up in her eyes, and spill down her cheeks. She reaches for him, and her hand lands on his arm. He shakes it off roughly, and her eyes meet his. There’s life in them now, but it’s agony and Rose feels like she’s been punched in the gut. “Please Doctor,” she pleads, voice thick with tears. He ignores her and leaves her alone in the galley. Rose slumps to the floor.

She sits there for a long time, the cold of the tile seeping through her clothes into her skin. It matches the ball of ice that has taken up residence in her chest. She stares at her hands, thinking about the way his fingers had fit between hers and how they’ll never fit there again.


End file.
